Jordan Wysong was hanging out with several friends one night last summer when he decided to go on a beer run. He ran into a Plaid Pantry in Southeast Portland, grabbed a 12-pack of Heineken and raced out.

The 15-year-old and his friends headed to Westmoreland Park, where they stayed past midnight, guzzling the beer. Soon, a car full of girls pulled up. Then the police.

Wysong, identified as the suspect in the shoplifting, was handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car, accused of third-degree theft, minor in possession and violating curfew.

"I was sitting there thinking . . . this sucks," Wysong recalled.

But it could have been much worse.

Instead of dropping him at juvenile detention, the officer took Wysong to a nondescript building in Northeast Portland called the Reception Center, a safe haven for teens picked up by police for minor offenses. The center, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, provides an alternative to detention as well as immediate attention before youths graduate to more serious crimes.